HX641 05237 
R284  .St1  Maladies,  remedies  a 


RECAP 


PAPERS  OP  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OP  BURLINGTON  COUNTY. 
Vol.    I  No.  I 


Maladies,  Remedies  and  Physicians 

Of  Colonial  Days  in  Burlington  County 


AND  OTHER  KINDRED  TOPICS 


BY 
A.  M.  STACKHOUSE, 

OF  MOORESTOWN,  N.  J. 


Read  before  the  Historical  Society  of  Burlington  County,  December  Uth,  1908. 


SETTLE  PRESS  PRINTING  COMPANY, 

MOORESTOWN,  NEW  JERSEY, 
1908. 


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http://www.archive.org/details/maladiesremedieOOstac 


PAPERS  OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  BURLINGTON  COUNTY 
Vol.    I  No.  I 


Maladies,  Remedies  and  Physicians 

Of  Colonial  Days  ih  Burlington  County 


AND  OTHER  KINDRED  TOPICS 


BY 

A.  M.  STACKHOUSE, 

OF  MOORESTOWN,   N.  J. 


Read  before  the  Historical  Society  of  Burlington  County,  December  11th,  U 


SETTLE  PRESS  PRINTING  COMPANY, 

MOORESTOWN,  NEW  JERSEY, 
1908. 


EDITION  LIMITED  TO  22E 
SIGNED  COPIES  OF  WHICH 
THIS  IS  NO. 


^2?/^    Ql^e/cSct^t^ 


|0R  several  years  past  I  have  taken  deep  interest  in 
everything  relating  to  the  early  history  of  West  New 
Jersey  and  especially  of  Burlington  County,  for 
among  those  who  helped  to  make  that  history  were  several  of 
my  ancestors  bearing  the  names  of  Budd,  Kendall,  Elton, 
Coles,  Scattergood,  Antrim,  Stockton,  Butcher,  Brian,  Powell, 
Matlack,  Eldridge,  Parker  and  Engle,  and  because  their  blood 
courses  through  my  veins  I  have  wanted  to  know  more  about 
them  and  their  neighbors  and  to  make  their  acquaintance. 
But  they  died  and  I  presume  went  to  heaven  long  before  I 
had  a  chance  to  interview  them  and  learn  more  about  their 
social  customs,  habits  of  life,  trials,  sufferings,  joys,  failuies 
and  successes  of  which  we  know  so  little.  When  in  the 
course  of  my  researches  I  have  come  across  anything  out 
of  the  beaten  track  of  the  historian  I  have  followed  Captain 
Cuttle's  advice, — "When  found  make  a  note  of . "  Another 
matter  that  possesses  considerable  interest  to  me  is  the  question 
of  health  among  those  early  settlers  ;  the  maladies  that  afflict- 
ed them,  the  herbs,  simples  and  medicines  they  used  and 
the  doctors  that  killed  or  cured  them.  And  so  when  request- 
ed by  the  Council  of  our  Historical  Society  to  prepare  a  pa- 
per for  this  occasion,  it  occurred  to  me  that  this  might  be  a 


good  subject  to  talk  about  inasmuch  as  so  little  attention  has 
been  paid  to  it.  It  is  one  of  the  objects  of  an  Historical 
Society,  I  apprehend,  to  gather  up  the  fragments  that  nothing 
be  lost,  but  when  I  came  to  gather  them  I  found  I  had  so 
little  to  tell  that  I  was  compelled  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  my 
paper  to  take  in  kindred  topics  and  I  am  ruefully  compelled 
to  confess  that  the  tail  "kindred  topics"  comes  dangerously 
near  wagging  the  dog.  Perhaps  you  will  agree  with  me  be- 
fore I  am  through.  Right  here  I  want  to  acknowledge  the 
obligations  I  am  under  to  that  excellent  work,  Wickes' 
'History  of  Medicine  and  Medical  Men  in  New  Jersey",  for 
some  things  that  I  have  to  say  relative  to  some  of  our  earlier 
physicians. 

I  do  not  want  to  go  back  to  the  garden  of  Eden  to  begin 
my  [story  but  for  purposes  of  contrast  I  begin  at  the  planting 
of  the  first  permanent  English  Colony  in  America  at  James- 
town in  1606.  This  is  what  Capt.  John  Smith  says  about 
those  Colonists  : — "All  this  time  we  had  but  one  Carpenter 
in  the  country  and  three  others  that  could  doe  little  but  desir- 
ed to  be  learners  ;  two  Blacksmiths  ;  two  Saylors  and  those 
we  write  Laborers  were  for  the  most  part  Footmen  and  such 
as  they  that  were  Adventurers  brought  to  attend  them  or  such 
as  they  could  persuade  to  go  with  them,  that  never  did  know 
what  a  day's  work  was  :  except  the  Dutch  men  and  Poles 
and  some  dozen  others.  For  all  the  rest  were  poore  Gentle- 
men, Tradesmen,  Serving  men,  Libertines  and  such  like,  ten 
times  more  fit  to  spoil  a  Commonwealth  than  either  begin  one 


or  but  help  to  maintain  one.  For  when  neither  the  fear  of 
God,  nor  the  law,  nor  shame  nor  displeasure  of  their  friends 
could  rule  them  here  (in  England)  there  is  small  hope  ever 
to  bring  one  in  twenty  of  them  ever  to  be  good  there."  (in 
Virginia.) 

I  suppose  all  those  "Poore  Gentlemen"  had  Coat  Armor, 
something  of  much  more  use  now  to  decorate  our  writing  pa- 
per than  it  could  possibly  be  to  them.  They  came  to  pick 
up  gold  and  silver  and  go  back  rich  with  the  hope  of  being 
raised  to  the  peerage,  for  that  canny  Scotchman  King  Jamie 
was  always  ready  to  grant  a  title — for  a  consideration.  But 
being  gentlemen  they  would  not  I  work  and  when  time  hung 
heavy  on  their  hands  they  managed  to  pick  quarrels  with  the 
Indians.  The  food  supply  was  cut  off  and  in  consequence 
the  early  history  of  the  Colony  is  one  of  famine,  pestilence 
and  Indian  massacre. 

In  1620  the  Mayflower  "steered  boldly  through  the  des- 
perate winter  sea"  to  the  shores  of  Massachusetts.  These 
colonists  were  of  a  totally  different  stamp,  men  not  ashamed 
to  work,  but  they  came  in  the  dead  of  winter  to  a  sterile  coun- 
try and  inhospitable  climate  and  they  made  the  fatal  mistake 
of  loading  down  the  little  Mayflower  with  crockery  ware,  old 
furniture  and  grandfather's  clocks  to  such  an  extent  that  too 
little  room  was  left  for  provisions.  The  Old  Testament  part 
of  their  Bibles  was  well  thumbed.  The  Indians  were  as  the 
children  of  Amalek  and  they  smote  them  hip  and  thigh.  The 
story  of  the  Virginia  Colony  was  repeated — famine,  pestilence 
and  Indian  massacre. 


A  little  over  half  a  century  elapsed  and  West  New  Jersey 
was  open  to  colonization  and  the  Quakers,  perhaps  through 
the  foresight  of  William  Penn,  profited  by  the  example  cf 
Virginia  and  Massachusetts  and  the  story  reads  quite  differ- 
ently. There  were  no  gentlemen  among  them.  They  were 
almost  all,  artisans  or  tradesmen  but  all  willing  to  work  to 
possess  the  soil  and  subdue  it.  These  modern  Argonauts 
sought  the  Golden  Fleece  and  found  it  too  later,  in  the  golden 
harvests  that  covered  the  swelling  uplands  of  our  State.  Pre- 
caution was  taken  to  cultivate  the  friendship  and  good  will  of 
the  Indians.  The  land  was  purchased  from  them  and  there 
was  no  famine,  no  pestilence  and  no  Indian  massacre.  Until 
the  colonists  succeeded  in  raising  crops  they  received  much 
of  their  food  supply  from  the  Indians  but  from  letters  written 
home  by  some  of  the  colonists,  during  the  first  three  years  at 
Burlington  we  learn  that  fruit  was  abundant  here,  as  were  also 
fish  and  flesh.  There  were  plenty  of  deer  and  also  swine 
and  oxen.  Even  as  early  as  April  1680,  less  than  two  and  a 
half  years  after  the  settlement  of  Burlington,  Mahlon  Stacy 
writes  that  he  has  seen  eight  or  nine  fat  oxen  and  cows  killed 
on  a  market  day  and  all  very  fat.  Query  ?  Where  did  the 
come  from  ?  Perhaps  those  Swedes  had  more  to  do  with  the 
settlement  of  our  country  than  any  of  our  historians  have 
given  them  credit  for.  While  there  were  times  when  the  food 
supply  was  limited,  especially  in  1682  when  Smith  our  histor- 
ian says  "several  got  the  chief  of  what  they  ate  by  the  gun", 
there  appears  to  have  been  no  failure  of  crops  until  1687  when 


several  families  were  reduced  to  dependence  on  their  more 
fortunate  neighbors.  The  timely  arrival  of  a  vessel  load  of 
corn  from  New  England-however  relieved  the  situation. 

The  ships  in  which  the  early  immigrants  came  hither, — 
the  barks,  snows  and  flieboats  were  all  tiny  crafts  compared 
with  the  vessels  of  to-day.  Even  the  Mayflower  was  of  only 
180  tons  burden.  They  were  all  devoid  of  sanitary  arrange- 
ments and  in  matters  of  appointment  were  not  to  be  compared 
with  the  cattle  transports  of  to-day.  In  the  graphic  pages  of 
Mittelberger  we  learn  of  the  frightful  mortality  on  board  the 
vessels  that  brought  the  Palatines  to  Pennsylvania  and  it  is  not 
likely  that  any  of  those  that  brought  our  early  settlers  to  Bur- 
lington were  any  better  fitted  to  carry  their  human  cargos. 
The  Kent's  voyage  seems  to  have  been  particularly  fortunate 
as  there  is  no  record  of  any  serious  mortality  on  board  of  her. 
Only  two  passengers,  John  Wilkinson  and  William  Perkins 
are  reported  to  have  died.  The  smallpox  frequently  broke 
out  on  the  vessels  that  came  hither  and  raged  with  violence. 
It  did  soon  the  "Welcome"  in  which  William  Penn  came 
and  several  died  from  it.  This  disease  was  then  very  pre- 
valent and  when  the  settlers  had  any  to  spare  it  was  gener- 
ously handed  over  to  the  Indians  and  was  as  fatal  as  whisky 
in  their  case.  It  was  suspected  that  attempts  were  made  to 
foment  a  hostile  feeling  among  the  Indians  against  the 
Kent's  passengers  by  insinuating  that  the  English  sold  them 
the  small-pox  in  their  match-coats.  Smith  says  "This  dis- 
temper was  among  them  and   a  company  getting  together  to 


consult  about  it,  one  of  their  chiefs  said — In  my  grand- 
father's time  the  small-pox  came,  in  my  father's  time  the 
small-pox  came  and  now  in  my  time  the  small-pox  is  come. 
'Then  stretching  his  hands  towards  the  skies  said  'It  came 
from  thence'  To  this  the  rest  assented."  This  disease  ap- 
pears to  have  been  generally  present  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree.  In  1716  it  raged  in  Burlington  and  the  Assembly 
met  at  Crosswicks  to  avoid  it.  Again  in  the  Spring  of  1731 
it  prevailed  to  an  alarming  extent  in  Salem  and  Philadelphia 
and  in  consequence  the  Fair  usually  held  in  the  spring  at  Bur- 
lington was  prohibited  at  a  "Petty  Session  of  the  Peace"  on 
April  16th  of  that  year. 

There  seems  however  to  have  been  a  sort  of  fatalism 
connected  with  this  disease  and  in  general  it  was  accepted  as 
a  matter  of  course,  I  fancy  very  much  as  Macpherson  did  the 
National  disease  of  Scotland  when  he  prayed 
"But  save  us  frae  those  maladies 

Thou  sendest  on  the  rich, 
Sic  heathen  ills  as  grip  and  gout ; 

We  dinna  mind  the  itch." 
There  was  plenty  of  nerve  in  the  Colony  but  no  nerves. 
We  never  hear  of  neuritis,  neurasthenia,  neuralgia  or  any  nui- 
sances of  that  ilk.  People  were  to  busy  in  leading  the  stren- 
uous life,  and  besides  that,  they  were  too  poor  to  afford  it. 
They  were  satisfied  with  just  plain  "rheumatiz".  Some  years 
ago  there  appeared  in  the  Scientific  American  some  remedies 
and  hints  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of  this  complaint.     I  will 

10 


mention  a  few  of  them— "Kill  a  big  dog  and  after  taking  out 
his  intestines  put  your  feet  where  they  came  from;  wear  sul- 
phur in  your  shoes;  hard  rubbing;  wear  silk;  wear  flannel; 
wear  buckskin;  gin  and  hemlock;  exercise  and  keep  it  off; 
keep  as  quiet  as  possible;  pray  fervently;  do  not  eat  meat: 
do  not  eat  potatoes  or  eggs;  eat  anything  you  please;  do  not 
smoke;  smoke  all  you  like;  drink  nothing  but  beer;  drink 
nothing  but  whiskey;  do  not  drink  anything  at  all;  bathe  in 
cold  water  frequently;  do  not  bathe  at  all  until  you  are  nearly 
well;  catnip  tea;  wrap  fresh  lambs  entrails  around  your  neck; 
drink  brandy;  brandy  is  the  worst  thing  for  rheumatism;  wear 
a  horse  chestnut  in  your  left  hand  breeches  pocket;  wear  a 
potatoe  in  the  other;  read  Job;  do  not  swear."  They  are  all 
valuable.  I  have  tried  most  all  of  them  but  the  first.  If  Dr. 
Thorne  would  loan  me  his  big  dog  I  might  be  induced  to  try 
that.  I  mention  these  incidentally  because  they  are  hoary  with 
age.  They  must  have  been  brought  here  on  the  Kent,  the 
Willing  Mind  or  the  flie  boat  Martha. 

In  a  letter  writen  by  John  Talbot,  Rector  of  St.  Mary's 
Church,  Burlington  to  the  Secretary  of  the  S.  P.  G.  dated 
October  28,  1714,  he  says — "I  have  been  sick  a  longtime  this 
fall  with  a  burning  fever  which  made  me  so  weak  I  could 
scarcely  speak.  *****  We  have  had  a  sickly  time 
this  year;  I  have  buried  more  than  in  ten  years  before;  and 
many  Church  people  died  that  had  nobody  to  visit 
them  when  sick  nor  bury  them  when  dead."  Fever  and  ague 
it  is  presumed  must  necessarily  have  been  common  but  I  find 

11 


little  mention  made  of  it  in  our  county.  It  prevailed  however 
generally  all  over  South  Jersey  especially  in  Gloucester 
County  among  the  Swedes.  In  1728,  a  malady  that  Kalm 
called  Pleurisy  appeared  at  Raccoon  Creek  and  was  very  fatal. 
In  the  winter  of  1735-6  an  epidemic  of  throat  disease  evident- 
ly of  diphtheritic  nature  swept  off  many  at  Crosswicks.  In 
the  newspapers  of  the  day  various  remedies  were  suggested. 

Under  the  date  of  February  20,  1777,  John  Hunt,  a 
Quaker  preacher  who  lived  in  Chester  Township  tells  us  in 
his  diary — "There  was  a  distemper  seemed  to  be  going  about- 
about  this  time  something  like  a  Pleuracy,  mostly  beginning 
in  the  Head  and  so  working  down  to  the  Stomach,  of  which 
many  were  suddenly  taken  away,"  and  again  in  March  he 
says  "my  oldest  son  lay  very  ill  of  a  fever  then  very  pre- 
valent. We  hear  of  burials  almost  every  day.  They  call  it 
the  camp  disorder."  This  fever  raged  during  most  of  the 
year  as  did  the  small-pox  and  measles. 

But  perhaps  of  all  the  diseases  that  prevailed  in  our 
county,  and  I  presume  elsewhere  in  New  Jersey  from  its 
earliest  settlement  until  well  along  in  to  more  recent  times: 
none  appear  to  have  been  so  virulent  and  so  difficult  to  con- 
trol as  the  dysentery,  or  bloody  flux  as  it  was  called,  espec- 
ially among  children.  In  the  old  genealogies  and  diaries  that 
I  have  seen  it  is  more  often  mentioned  as  the  cause  of  death 
than  all  other  maladies  combined.  In  an  address  delivered 
by  Col.  Timothy  Matlack  before  the  American  Philosophical 
Society  in  1780,  he  says:     "Pennsylvanians  and  Jersey  men 

12 


eat  more  meat  than  any  other  nation.  Hence  many  fatal  dis- 
eases take  their  rise,  especially  dysenteries  and  putrid  fevers" 
and  he  recommends  full  ripe  fruit  as  the  best  preventative  and 
remedy.  "The  effect  produced"  says  he  "by  the  best  kind 
of  free-stone  peaches  in  dysenteries  render  it  probable  that 
general  cultivation  of  that  fruit  alone  would  within  twenty 
years  save  more  lives  than  we  have  lost  in  the  present  cruel 
and  bloody  war."  The  doughty  Colonel  can  hardly  be  con- 
sidered competent  medical  Authority  but  his  statement  shows 
how  serious  were  the  ravages  of  this  fatal  disease.  While 
mentioning  his  address  I  want  to  make  one  more  quotation 
"But  thanks  to  that  kind  Providence  which  governs  all  with 
equal  Wisdom  and  Benevolence,  we  have  no  need  of  foreign 
wines.  Our  Orchards  yield  us  a  juice  which  well  improved 
may  justly  vie  with  the  best  the  world  affords.  The  art  of 
fermenting  will  bring  this  delicious  drink  to  perfection.  And 
our  fields  produce  Hops  and  Barley  in  Abundance.  These 
afford  a  Liquor  which  when  the  sons  of  Britain  were  brave 
and  virtuous  was  their  boast.  It  is  a  fact  that  those  who 
drink  Beer  well  tinctured  with  the  Hop  are  not  afflicted  with 
the  Agues  while  those  who  drink  Spirits  of  any  kind  are 
doubly  afflicted  with  thern.  The  Colonel,  were  he  living 
here  to-day  would  certainly  join  our  Local  Option  League. 
Many  years  ago  a  family  from  Holland  came  to  this 
country  and  settled  in  Chester  Township  not  far  from  Coles- 
town,  and  among  the  treasures  the  thrifty  row  brought  with 
her,  was  a  little  package  of  the  seeds  of  purslane  or  "pusley" 

13 


as  it  is  called  in  the  vernacular.  The  good  woman  did 
not  know  that  she  could  gather  enough  "  pusley  "  in  the 
sweet  potatoe  patches  of  New  Jersey  to  feed  all  Hol- 
land. But  she  loved  boiled  "greens"  and  she  provided  her- 
self with  wise  forethought  for  the  new  life  in  the  new  land. 
"One  touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin,"  and  this 
incident  suggests  what  our  good  old  Quaker  ancestors  did  in 
the  colonial  dawn.  Anxious  hours  were  no  doubt  spent 
during  those  last  months  in  their  quiet  English  homes  as  the 
time  approached  when  they  were  to  cut  loose  from  old  ties 
and  old  associations  to  cross  the  broad  Atlantic,  to  find  a  new 
home  under  other  skies  and  other  conditions  that  were  matters 
of  conjecture  only.  What  ought  we  to  take  with  us  to  our 
new  home  where  contingencies  may  arise  that  we  know  not 
of?  What  shall  we  need  when  we  get  there?  Many  a  pray- 
er for  guidance  I  question  not,  went  up  to  Him  who  had  so 
far  led  them  through  trials  and  difficulties,  and  who  would 
still  be  with  them.  One  thing  surely  was  needed  and  that 
was  the  preservation  of  health  and  the  means  to  recover  it 
when  impaired;  and  so  along  the  lanes  and  hedge  rows  of 
Merrie  England  and  in  those  old  gardens,  I  fancy  they  col- 
lected— reverently  it  may  be  —the  seeds  of  such  herbs  and 
simples  as  from  time  immemorial  they  and  their  fathers  had 
been  accustomed  to  use  to  combat  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir 
to.  So  the  seed  of  the  burdock,  hoarhound,  chamomile, 
peppermint,  spearmint,  St.  John's-wort  and  many  others  were 
collected  and   in  little   packages   carefully  preserved,    came 

14 


across  the  sea  with  them.  Perhaps  I  am  drawing  on  my  im- 
agination you  will  say,  but  these  plants  are  here  now  and  bot- 
anists agree  that  they  are  not  indiginous.  Somebody  must 
have  brought  them  here  and  who  so  likely  as  those  good  old 
Quaker  matrons.  Here  in  the  little  gardens  among  the  stumps 
they  found  a  new  home — and  how  humanly  they  behaved. 
Some  shrunk  under  our  fierce  summer  sun  and  longed  for 
the  cool  moisture  of  England.  Others  again  caught  the  in- 
fection of  the  spirit  of  liberty  and  silently  and  stealthily  es- 
caped through  the  garden  fence  and  wandered  away.  What 
cared  they  for  the  House  of  Stuart  and  the  divine  right  of 
Kings?  What  cared  they  for  parson  Talbot  with  the  whole 
power  of  the  Church  of  England  behind  him.  What  cared 
they  whether  Burlington  Monthly  Meeting  disowned  them  or 
not?  Long,  long  before  July  4th,  1776,  they  declared  their 
independence  and  what  is  more,  maintained  it  is  spite  of  hoe 
and  plow  and  they  are  our  neighbors  to-day.  They  are  freer 
than  we  are  for  they  pay  no  taxes.  Far  afield  wandered  the 
St.  John's-wort  in  search  of  dry  places.  To  the  fence  cor- 
ners and  road  sides  went  the  great  celandine  and  tansy. 
Here  perhaps  they  found  American  cousins,  married  and 
settled  down.  The  spearmint  sought  out  moist  places,  be- 
came aggressive,  driving  out  the  aboriginal  plants  wherever  it 
chose  to  stake  out  its  claim,  lost  caste  and  became  a  weed. 
The  peppermint,  of  less  aggressive  nature  sought  the  mead- 
ows. The  hop  staid  in  the  garden  or  at  least  lingered  lov- 
ingly around  it.     The  chickweed  started  in  to  monopolize  all 

15 


the  richest  spots  in  the  garden,  resented  interference  and  be- 
came a  general  nuisance.  The  burdock  and  hcarhound,  of  a 
more  sociable  nature  located  around  the  barn  and  out  build- 
ings where  the  soil  was  rich  and  deep.  Like  Isiael  they  saw 
the  land  was  good  and  went  up  and  possessed  it.  Here  too  the 
catnip  strayed  and  settled,  finding  perhaps  aboriginal  rela- 
tives with  which  it  intermarried.  It  always  staid  near  the 
farm  garden  so  as  to  be  within  easy  call  when  the  naughty 
wind  ran  riot  in  baby's  'ittle  tummick  mindful  of  the  fact  that 
there  was  not  a  single  bottle  of  Mrs.  Winslow's  Soothing 
Syrup  to  be  had  for  love  or  money  from  one  end  of  the  col- 
onies to  the  other.  The  smartweed  probably  came  over  as  a 
stowaway  uninvited,  and  when  here,  finding  lots  of  cousins  as 
disreputable  as  itself  at  once  exercised  the  right  of  squatter  sov- 
ereignty. The  chamomile  was  little  inclined  to  wander  from 
the  garden  but  like  the  good  child  staid  where  it  was  put. 
Years  ago  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  to  see  in  cool  moist 
places  in  the  garden,  beds  of  chamomile  with  the  soil  be- 
tween the  stems  closely  covered  with  clam  shells  with  their 
convex  sides  uppermost — as  a  protection  from  weeds,  to  keep 
it  clean  or  for  ornamental  effect.  I  suspect  that  this  mode 
of  planting  it  was  handed  down  from  colonial  times.  Several 
old  friends  greeted  the  settlers  when  they  came.  The  penny- 
royal grew  wherever  the  soil  was  thin  and  poor.  The  dan- 
delion turned  up  its  smiling  face  to  bid  them  welcome  and  the 
blackberry  seemed  very  unwilling  to  let  them  go  when  it 
caught  them  in  its  affectionate  embrace.     They  all   furnished 

16 


their  quota  cheerfully  when  a  draft  was  made  on  them  in  time 
of  sickness. — Of  one  thing  I  can  acquit  our  forefathers.  They 
brought  many  plants  hither,  some  good  ones  and  some  not 
so,  but  they  never  brought  over  that  pestiferous  little  imp  of 
a  weed  that  in  these  last  few  years  has  infested  the  gardens 
of  Moorestown  and  elsewhere — I  mean  the  Galinsoga.  It 
never  came  over  in  the  Kent. 

For  some  time  after  the  first  settlement  of  our  county 
there  were  Indians  living  here  and  no  doubt  our  old  Quaker 
mothers  in  times  of  dire  necessity  when  all  other  means  failed 
had  recourse  to  them  to  learn  whatever  they  had  to  teach 
concerning  the  healing  art.  Heckewelder  tells  us  much  about 
the  diseases  of  the  Indians,  their  remedies  and  mode  of  prac- 
tice. Rheumatism,  pulmonary  consumption,  dysentery  and 
intermittent  fevers  were  very  common  among  them.  Their 
Materia  Medica  was  composed  almost  entirely  of  roots,  barks 
and  herbs.  Bleeding  and  sweating  were  practiced;  in  fact 
they  had  recourse  to  the  sweating  process  at  any  time  they 
felt  slightly  indisposed.  The  healing  art  was  practiced  among 
them  by  men  and  women.  It  was  founded  entirely  upon 
observation  and  experience.  Only  one  superstitious  notion  was 
recognized  and  practiced  by  them  which  was  certainly  harm- 
less enough.  In  administering  an  emetic,  the  water  in  which 
the  potion  was  mixed  was  drawn  up  stream — in  case  of  a 
cathartic  it  was  drawn  down  stream.  They  were  very  suc- 
cessful in  their  practice,  especially  in  the  treatment  of  gun- 
shot and  other  wounds.     He  tells  us  that  on  one  occasion  he 


17 


suffered  excruciating  pain  for  two  days  and  nights  from  a 
felon  or  whitlow  when  he  applied  to  a  squaw  who  relieved 
him  in  less  than  half  an  hour  by  means  of  a  poultice  made  of 
the  roots  of  the  common  blue  violet. 

He  tells  us  their  method  of  compounding  their  medicines 
was  kept  a  profound  secret  and  they  disliked  to  make  their 
remedies  known  to  strangers.  He  mentions  whiteoak,  black 
oak,  white  walnut,  cherry,  dogwood,  birch,  and  maple  among 
their  remedial  agents. 

John  Dunn  Hunter,  whose  early  life  was  spent  among 
the  Indians,  if  his  account  is  given  credence,  tells  us  in  his 
'Narrative"  of  medicinal  agents  made  use  of  by  them  and 
makes  mention  of  the  black  walnut,  horse  chestnut,  dewberry 
Indian  turnip,  may  apple,  pipsissewa,  sassafras,  sumac, 
(Rhus  Glabra)  tulip  tree  and  slippery  elm  which  latter  among 
the  Western  Indians  bore  the  suggestive  name  meaning  "It 
won't  go  down".  Not  all  of  these  are  I  believe  indigenous 
to  Burlington  County  but  many  of  them  are,  and  while  the 
merits  of  some  were  recognized  in  England  before  the  times 
of  our  Colony  these  Indian  remedies  no  doubt  helped  to  en- 
rich the  domestic  Materia  Medica  of  our  settlers.  Pipsissewa 
and  Indian  turnip'were  used  for  coughs  and  colds.  The  tulip 
tree  and  dogwood  furnished  remedies  for  the  intermittent 
fever  and  Kalm  tells  us  that  down  in  Gloucester  County, 
branches  of  the  dogwood  were  tied  around  the  necks  of  the 
cows  in  the  spring  when  they  were  weak  from  semi-starvation 
during  the  winter.     He  does  not  tell  us  however  what  benefit 


the  cows  derived  from  it.  The  poke  grew  quite  sociable  and 
crept  up  in  the  fence  corners  and  waste  places  and  fairly  rev- 
elled in  the  newly  cleared  soil.  Kalm  says  it  was  a  worth- 
less weed,  nevertheless  it  is  an  old  simple.  The  yarrow 
growing  by  the  road  side  and  the  boneset  in  the  meadows 
were  gathered  and  a  tea  made  of  them  when  the  "shakes" 
came  on.  In  fact  every  plant  possessing  bitter  or  astringent 
principles  was  laid  under  contribution  to  combat  the  ague  as 
were  many  nauseous  compounds.  Every  family  had  a  sover- 
eign remedy  for  the  chills  but  none  proved  reliable  and  their 
use  has  been  discarded.  Life  everlasting  was  used  as  a  reme- 
dy for  the  gout.  Sassafras  was  supposed  to  possess  wonder- 
ful properties  It  was  used  for  dropsy  and  other  ailments. 
The  young  mucilaginous  shoots  were  chewed  and  applied  to 
cuts  and  sores.  The  wood  was  used  to  make  bed  steads  and 
was  exported  in  large  quantities  to  Europe.  It  was  supposed 
not  to  harbor  the  bug  that  stalketh  by  night  and  biteth  uncere- 
moniously. Kalm  says  of  the  Magnolia  Glauca  or  beaver  tree 
as  it  was  called  ,  "Coughs  and  pectoral  diseases  are  cured  by 
putting  the  berries  into  rum  or  brandy  of  which  a  draught 
every  morning  may  be  taken.  The  virtues  of  this  remedy 
-'says  he  "were  universally  extolled  and  even  praised  for  their 
salutory  effects  in  consumption."  Sometimes  they  forgot  to 
put  the  "berries"  in  the  rum  or  brandy — but  it  helped  all  the 
same. 

But  interesting  as  this  part  of  my  subject  may  be,  to  me 
at  least,  I  must  pass  on.       But  should  any  be  desirous  to  pur- 

19 


sue  the  matter  farther,  I  would  recommend  you  to  obtain  the 
three  volume  edition  or  Kalm's  "Travels  In  North  America" — 
if  you  are  lucky  enough  to  do  so  as  it  is  not  to  be  picked  up 
at  any  old  book  stand.  No  more  charming  work  on  our  local 
flora  and  fauna  was  ever  written. 

But  I  almost  forgot  to  say  that  ours  settlers  did  not  rely 
entirely  on  the  vegetable  kingdom  for  their  medicinal  agents. 
Calomel  played  an  important  part  in  the  treatment  of  most  all 
diseases,  not  only  by  the  profession  but  in  domestic  practice. 
Tradition  tells  us  of  one  family  that  was  accustomed  to  buy 
it  by  the  pound. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  a  good  many  of  cur  early 
Quaker  settlers  brought  no  bibles  with  them  especially  during 
the  first  twenty-five  years  or  so  frcm  the  arrival  of  the  Kent. 
I  have  never  seen  one  that  could  be  traced  to  Quaker  owner- 
ship during  that  period  although  they  are  occasionally  men- 
tioned in  wills;  while  the  so  called  "Old  Quaker  books"  are 
more  numerous  and  in  them  arc  frequently  found  family  rec- 
ords of  births,  deaths  and  marriages  that  are  usually  recorded 
in  bibles.  During  this  period  the  charge  was  persistently 
made  by  Churchmen  that  the  Quakers  were  heathens  and 
worse  than  the  Indians.  This  may  however  be  ascribed  to 
sectarian  rancor.  While  the  Quaker  books  were  of  use  for 
edification, they  were  the  text  books  of  the  doctrine  of  the  In- 
ner Light.  It  was  a  controversial  age  and  they  were  needed 
in  the  defense  of  their  tenets  against  the  assaults  of  the  Church- 
men.    Many  doubtless  were  the  discussions  between  Parson 


Talbot  and  the  Quakers.  They  would  produce  the  works  of 
Penn,  Fox  and  Barclay  and  he  would  go  into  the  rectory  and 
bring  out  Bugg's" Pilgrim's  Progress  from  Quakerism  to  Christ- 
ianity" and  Leslie's  "Snake  in  the  Grass"  and  they  hammered 
away  at  each  other  and  made  things  lively. The  Friends  felt  sore 
over  the  defection  from  their  ranks  to  the  Church,  of  the  Leeds, 
Budds,  Heulings  and  other  families  of  wealth  and  influence. 
But  I  find  I  am  wandering  again.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  spiritual  health  or  disease  of  those  colonists,  although  the 
acrimonious  religious  disputes  tended  to  keep  them  from  dying 
of  stagnation.  What  I  wanted  to  say  is,  that  in  those  days 
writing  paper  was  scarce  and  costly.  In  the  inventory  of  the 
estate  of  John  Mann  of  Cohansey,  Salem  County  in  1727,there 
is  mention  of  one  "reame"  of  fine  paper  valued  £1.5  s.and  12 
quires  of  course,  at  12s.  Now  in  these  old  books,  especially 
the  folios.there  were  several  blank  pages  and  they  were  made 
available  to  jot  down  memoranda  of  things  considered  worthy 
of  record.  For  instance,  on  the  inside  cover  of  a  copy  of 
"Truth  Exalted  in  the  Writings  of  that  Eminent  and  Truthfull 
Servant  of  Christ — John  Burnyeat,  London,  1691",  appears  the 
following — "Benjamin,  Joseph,  Susannah,  Elizabeth,  Ann  and 
Samuel  Furnis  all  hadye  Smallpox  in  ye  2  and  3  months  1702." 
This  book  belonged  to  Samuel  Furnace,  one  of  the  early  settlers 
mentioned  by  Smith  in  his  History  of  New  Jersey  as  coming 
to  this  country  in  1678.  But  I  am  wandering  again.  Among  these 
old  books  will  frequently  be  found  recipes  of  various  ailments. 
There  was  extant  some  years  ago  a  volume  entitled  "Balm 

21 


From  Gilead,  A  Collection  of  the  Living  Divine^  Testimonies, 
Written  by  the  faithful  Servant  of  the  Lord,  Willam  Smith, 
London  1675."  This  belonged  to  John  and  Esther  (Borton) 
Haines.  John  Haines,  son  of  the  first  of  the  name  in  this 
county  came  from  Northamptonshire,  England  in  1680  and 
lived  for  a  time  in  a  cave  on  the  banks  of  the  Rancocas  Creek 
near  Lumberton.  In  this  old  book  in  the  hand-writing  of 
John  Haines,  appears  the  following: — 

"Griffith  Owen's*Poultice  for  a  sore  leg  that  is  cut:- 
Take  wheat  meal  mix  it  with  milk  in  a  small  skil- 
let full:  put  in  the  yolk  of  one  egg  and  a  little  honey 
and  a  very  little  Rosin,  warm  it  and  lay  it  on  once  a 
day.  Let  a  plaster  of  salve  cover  the  sore. 
To  stop  bleeding  of  a  Cut: — 

Take  Burdock  Leaves  and  pound  them  and  lay  to 
the  cut;  if  the   Leg  swell   it  must  be  swathed  as 
hard  as  thou  canst  bear. 
For  Pain  and  Heat  at  the  Heart: — 

Take  the  paunch  of  a  Sheep  just  killed,  fasten  the 
oozing  and  little  gut  and  lay  the  paunch  to  the  side 
all  night." 
In  a  folio  copy  of  a  work  entitled  "The  Memorable  Works  of 
a  Son  of  Thunder  and  Consolation.  Edward  Burrough,  1672" — 
in  the  penmanship  of  two  centuries  ago  is  the  following:- 
"for  a  burn  or  scald  take  the  White  of  Egg  and  bet 
them   very   well,  then  put   by  the  froth  and  anoint 
the  sore, then  take  fine  wheat  meal  and  salitoyle  and 
some  of  the  Egg  for  plasters." 


*        Grifith  Owen  was  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Pennsylvania.    He  was  a  physician 
and  also  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends. 

22 


Again;- 

"for  a  bruise  and  spreane  take  plantain,  thorn  apple 
*  *  *  *  smart  weed"  [I  use  a  somewhat  more  ref- 
ined name  for  this  weed  than  appears  in  the  text.] 
leaves  and  sheep's  dung,  boyle  all  these  in  fresh  butter 
or  hog's  fat  over  a  small  fire." 

It  does  not  state  whether  this  is  to  be  taken  internally  or 
externally!  This  book  has  the  following  printed  name  plate 
on  the  inside  of  the  cover: — 


7th  Moneth 
Elias   )    Farr    C 

I  \  Their  Book 

Sarah  )   1672    (. 


They  probably  came  to  Burlington  in  1681.  Elias  Farr 
was  one  of  the  West  Jersey  Proprietors,  a  member  of  the  As- 
sembly and  Governor's  Council. 

Oldmixon  tells  us  in  his  "British  Empire"  that  in  Car- 
teret's time,  New  Jersey  was  singularly  blest.  In  natural  ad- 
vantages there  was  every  thing  that  could  be  desired  and  there 
were  no  lawyers,  no  parsons,  no  physicians!  Of  course  New 
Jersey  has  fallen  from  her  high  estate.  The  lawyer,  appear 
not  to  have  been  cordially  welcome  in  the  Colonies  especial 
where  the  Quakers  predominated,  The  parson  was  still  less 
so  in  all  the  colonies  where  the  dissenting  element  was  in  the 
majority.  He  was  apt  to  be  arrogant  and  dissenters  lived  in 
constant  fear  of  the  establishment  of  a  Colonial  Episcopate 
which  meant  as  they  believed,  the  importation  to  this  side  of 

23 


the  Atlantic  of  the  pomp,  officiousness  and  tyranny  of  the 
ecclesiastical  hierarchy.  The  parson  was  tolerated  because  there 
was  no  help  for  it.  He  had  the  power  of  the  Colonial  Govern- 
ment behind  him.  We  learn  that  a  strange  fatality  attended 
those  who  went  from  the  Colonies  to  take  holy  orders  in  Eng- 
land. One  out  of  every  four  perished  by  smallpox  or  ship- 
wreck or  were  taken  prisoners  and  never  returned  and  there  is 
no  record  of  any  extravagant  manifestations  of  grief  by  the 
Quakers  at  their  loss  nor  would  there  have  been  if  the 
mortality  had  been  even  greater.  The  colonies  fairly  swarm- 
ed with  quacks,  empirics,  charlatans  and  the  like,  and  a  few 
regular  physicians.  Which  of  them  did  the  most  harm  it 
would  be  difficult  to  say.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  it  was  the 
regulars.  Anyhow,  they  seemed  to  be  a  necessary  evil. 
Their  system  of  practice — bleeding,  sweating,  purging, 
salivating  &c.  would  not  be  tolerated  to-day,  That  system 
has  fallen  into  "innocuous  desuetude".  Wickes  says  that  the 
practice  of  the  healing  art  was  chiefly  in  the  care  of  the  clergy. 
"Many  of  them  were  men  of  profound  minds  and  highly 
educated.  For  several  years  previous  to  their  leaving  Eng- 
land, anticipating  the  loss  of  their  situations  as  clergymen, many 
of  them  turned  their  attention  to  the  study  of  medicine  and 
for  upwards  of  a  century  after  the  settlement  of  New  England, 
numbers  of  the  native  clergy  were  continually  educated  to  both 
professions."  This  does  not  appear  to  have  been  the  case  in 
Burlington  County.  There  were  very  few  resident  clergymen 
here  before  the  Revolution.    John  Talbot  the  first  Rector  of 

24 


St.  Mary's  Church,  Burlington  did  not  practice  medicine,  at 
least  there  is  no  record  of  it.  A  list  of  his  books  is  extant 
and  there  are  no  medical  works  among  them.  Robert  Talbot 
who  is  said  to  have  been  his  son  was  an  apothecary  in  Burling- 
ton as  we  learn  from  his  Will  dated  Jan.  8, 1725-6.  He  was  the 
only  apothecary  in  the  county  at  that  time  as  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  learn.  I  can  find  no  record  of  Talbot's  success- 
ors Rev.  Robert  Wyman  and  Rev.  Colin  Campbell  ever 
practicing  medicine.  Their  successor  the  Rev.  Jonathan 
Odell  who  became  Rector  in  1767  was  however  also  a  physi- 
cian. His  income  as  parson  proved  insufficient  for  his  sup- 
port and  he  began  to  practice  the  healing  art  about  1769. 
But  our  interest  centres  rather  in  the  doctors  of  the  early 
colonial  period. 

One  of  the  most  noted  physicians  in  our  colony  in  those 
early  days  who  was  also  the  first  in  Burlington  County  was 
Daniel  Wills.  He  was  a  native  of  Northampton,  England 
and  was  born  about  1630.  He  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  Qua- 
kers and  what  we  know  of  him  as  regards  his  life  previous  to 
his  coming  to  this  country  is  entirely  owing  to  that  fact.  In 
December  1660  a  meeting  of  the  Quakers  was  held  at  Middle- 
town  and  he  was  among  those  who  were  arrested.  The  oath 
was  tendered  him  but  he  declined  to  take  it  and  was  in  con- 
sequence committed  to  jail  where  he  spent  several  months. 
In  the  following  year  a  meeting  was  held  in  his  house  at 
Northampton  and  a  raid  was  made  by  the  authorities  on  those 
who  attended  it  and  several  were  sent  to  jail,  but  his  name 

25 


does  not  appear  among  them.  Eesse  relates  the  following  in- 
cident as  occuring  in  1661.  "Daniel  Wills  of  Northampton 
being  concerned  to  testify  against  the  Vanity  of  acting  a  Play 
in  the  Free-School  there,  got  up  with  much  Difficulty  to  the 
Peace  where  the  Scholars  were,  and  said  thus.  Hear  the 
word  of  the  Lord  God  that  made  Heaven  and  Earth,  who 
saith,  Bring  up  your  children  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord  God  in  the  Days 
of  their  Youth  before  the  evil  Days  come  upon  them,  for  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  God  is  grieved  with  your  unrighteous  Actions.  He  had 
no  sooner  said  thus,  but  a  Priest  present  pluckt  him  down  and 
another  of  the  same  Function  pulled  him  by  the  hair,  and 
beat  him  very  much.  And  another  Person  there  present 
struck  him  several  Blowsion  the  bare  Head  with  an  iron  Chain." 
Again  in  1662  he  was  sent  to  jail  for  attending  a  meeting 
in  Northampton.  In  1663  while  attending  a  meeting  at  Mus- 
kett  the  was  once  more  arrested  and  sent  to  jail.  In  1666  he  with 
several  others  was  brought  before  the  court  at  Northampton 
to  be  tried  on  "the  Act  for  Banishment  for  the  third  offence." 
Owing  to  some  doubt  arising,  the  case  was  postponed  and 
he  was  finally  released,  thus  narrowly  escaping  transportation 
to  Jamaica,  at  that  time  the  Quaker  Botany  Bay.  Whether 
the  fires  of  persecution  had  slackened  in  his  case  or  the  mo- 
notony of  jail  life  palled  upon  him,  we  do  not  know  but  he 
seems  to  have  been  undisturbed  during  his  subsequent  stay  in 
England.  When  it  was  decided  to  colonize  West  New  Jersey 
he  became  interested  in  the  venture  and  in  connection  with 
Thomas  Olive  became  the  owner  of  one  share  of  the  Pro- 

26 


prietary  holdings.  He  was  appointed  one  of  the  commission- 
ers to  establish  the  colony.  He  came  hither  in  the  Kent,  laid 
out  the  town  of  Burlington  and  located  600  acres  in  what  is 
now  the  extreme  western  side  of  Westampton  Township 
boardering  along  the  east  side  of  the  road  leading  from  Cen- 
treton  to  Rancocas.  In  the  marsh  along  this  road  between 
the  Friends'  Graveyard  and  the  lane  leading  up  to  the  site  of 
his  house  may  still  be  seen  an  old  mill  stone  with  a  birch  sap- 
ling growing  up  through  the  hole  in  the  middle  of  it,  which 
tradition  says  belonged  to  a  corn  mill  built  by  him  in  that  vi- 
cinity. He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  means  and  brought 
with  him  several  servants  who  became  the  progenitors  of  in- 
fluential families  in  our  county,  among  whom  were  George 
Elkinton,  William  Matlack,  Thomas  Kendall,  Thomas  Brian 
and  John  Stokes  son  of  Thomas.  Daniel  Wills  possessed  abil- 
ity as  a  manager  and  organizer  and  much  of  the  success  of 
the  colony  is  due  to  him,  He  was  the  author  of  two  books 
— one,  a  small  quarto  entitled  "A  Few  Quaeries  to  Simon 
Ford,  Priest  at  the  Town  of  Northampton"  published  in  1682. 
The  other,  '  'An  Exhortation  to  all  Friends  to  Dwell  in  the 
Cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  appears  as  an  appendix  to 
"A  Relation  in  Part  of  what  passed  through  a  true  and  faith- 
ful Servant  and  Handmaid  of  the  Lord,  Mary  Page,  when  she 
lay  upon  her  Bed  of  Sickness, — by  Bridget  Nichols  and 
others."  This  was  published  about  1665.  The  title  of  this 
last  is  vague  and  ambiguous.  I  have  never  seen  a  copy  but 
I  suspect  it  refers  to  Mary  Page's  spiritual  experience  and 
not  to  impaired  digestion. 

27 


Daniel's  brother  William  lived  in  Barbadoes  and  also  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a  man  of  wealth.  In  his  will  dated  Octo- 
ober  2,  1671  he  devised  his  estate  to  his  two  sons  but  in  the 
event  of  their  death  without  issue  the  major  part  of  the  estate 
devolved  upon  Daniel  Wills  and  his  children.  It  is  presumed 
that  this  so  happened  for  Daniel  went  to  Barbadoes  on  bus- 
iness connected  with  his  brother's  estate  and  there  died  in 
1698.  Daniel  Wills  is  mentioned  in  the  old  records  as  "Doc- 
tor of  Physsick,"  ' -Surgeon"  or  as  he  styles  himself  "Pract- 
icioner  in  Chymistry."  It  is  not  known  whether  he  was  a  reg- 
ular physician  or  not,  nor  where  he  received  his  medical  ed- 
ucation. In  fact  little  is  known  of  him  as  a  physician.  In 
his  will  is  mentioned  "a  negro  boy,  a  book  of  Chirurgery 
called.  Ambrose  Parry,  other  books  and  a  watch."  The 
'  'book  called  Ambrose  Parry"  is  no  doubt  the  folio  edition, 
London,  1634,  of  Johnson's  edition  of  the  works  of  Ambroise 
Pare\  the  famous  French  surgeon  who  flourished  in  the  16th 
century,  who  first  instituted  the  method  of  ligating  arteries  to 
prevent  hemorrhage.  Wills  also  owned  a  copy  of  Gerard's 
Herbal,  the  greatest  publication  of  the  kind  in  the  English 
language.  Some  of  his  surgical  instruments  are  still  in  exist- 
ance  I  believe. 

Another  physician  in  the  early  days  of  the  Burlington 
Colony  was  John  Gosling.  It  is  not  known  where  he  came 
from  originally.  I  find  the  name  among  the  early  Quakers  in 
Suffolk,  England.  He  may  have  came  from  thence.  He 
was  one  of  the  signers  of  "The  Concessions  and  Agreements 

28 


of  the  Proprietors."  He  probably  came  to  Burlington  from 
New  York  in  1682  or  3,  as  in  a  memorandum  of  a  conveyance 
in  1684,  he  is  mentioned  as  "of  Burlington  merchant".  He 
is  also  mentioned  in  some  of  the  records  as  a  physician.  He 
married  in  1685  Mary  Budd,  who  is  supposed  to  have  been  a 
sister  of  Thomas  Budd.  He  was  a  large  land  owner  and  filled 
important  positions  in  the  colony,  being  a  member  of  the  Col- 
onial Assembly  and  also  of  the  Governor's  Council,  and  con- 
tinued to  hold  them  during  his  stay  in  Burlington.  In  1685 
he  went  to  Barbadoes  and  there  died.  Before  leaving  Bur- 
lington he  made  his  will.  Sixty  nine  names  are  mentioned 
therein  of  those  indebted  to  him  and  among  them  are  many 
of  the  wealthiest  and  most  influential  colonist.  It  is  possible 
that  many  of  these  may  have  been  indebted  to  him  for  med- 
ical services  rendered.  If  so,  it  would  appear  that  he  had  a 
goodly  clientele.  All  the  certain  knowledge  we  have  of  him 
as  a  physician  is  that  he  was  called  one. 

There  came  to  America  inl683  with  William  Penn,  a 
friend  who  was  called  Doctor.  His  name  was  Robert  Dims- 
dale.  John  Clement  says  he  came  from  Chatteris  Cambridge- 
shire, England.  I  find  his  name  in  Besse  as  suffering  im- 
prisonment in  the  jail  at  Hertford  along  with  Nicholas  Lucas 
and  others.  He  bought  of  Lucas  a  one  third  proprietary  in- 
terest in  West  Jersey  and  located  a  large  tract  of  land  on  both 
sides  of  the  stream  called  after  him  and  built  a  large  brick 
house  thereon  near  the  present  site  of  Lumberton.  It  is  not 
known  that  he  practiced  medicine  here.     It  has  been  suggest- 

29 


ed  that  he  was  more  interested  in  real  estate  speculations. 
His  wealth  and  influence  brought  him  into  prominence  and 
he  at  once  became  a  member  of  the  Assembly  and  the  Gov- 
ernor's Council.  He  married  the  second  time,  Sarah,  daugh- 
ter of  Francis  Collins.  He  returned  to  England  in  1688  and 
settled  near  Epping  in  Essex  and  died  in  1718.  In  1684  he 
caused  to  be  printed  his  "Advice — How  to  take  his  Medicines 
(in  the  several  Distempers  herein  mentioned)  as  also,  where 
they  are  to  be  had,  with  their  Price."  This  shows  him  to 
have  been  an  Empiric  or  Charlatan.  His  grandson  was  a 
physician  of  some  note  and  became,  "First  Physician  and 
Actual  Counseller  of  State  to  her  Imperial  Majesty,  Catherine 
II,  Empress  of  All  the  Russias.'' 

In  the  records  of  St.  Mary's  Church,  Burlington,  we  find 
the  name  of  Dr.  John  Robards  as  one  of  the  contributors  to 
the  Church  on  the  day  of  its  opening,  August  22,  1702.  He 
was  in  1717  one  of  his  Majesty's  Justices  of  the  Peace.  He 
was  the  son-in-law  of  Nathaniel  Westland,  a  generous  contrib- 
utor to  the  church  and  one  of  its  first  Wardens.  Robards 
died  in  1724.  In  the  inventory  of  his  personal  estate  men- 
tion is  made  of  a  library  of  91  titles  some  of  which  are  those 
of  medical  works. 

Between  1722  and  1727,  Dr.  John  Rodman  came  to  Bur- 
lington, settled  there  and  practiced  medicine.  In  a  letter  da- 
ted, New  York,  June  20, 1731. .written  by  Governor  Montgom- 
ery to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  he  says: — "There  is  also  a 
vacancy  in  His  Majesty's  Council  in  the  Province  of  New 

30 


Jersey,  John  Hugg  being  dead,  I  beg  your  Grace  will  recom- 
mend Doctor  John  Rodman  to  succeed  him.  He  is  well  af- 
fected to  the  Government,  a  man  of  sense,  very  much  esteem- 
ed and  has  a  good  estate  in  the  Province."  Montgomerie  died 
soon  after  this  and  Governor  Crosby  also  suggested  the  ap- 
pointment but  nothing  was  done  in  the  matter  until  1738, 
when  he  was  appointed  to  the  office  under  the  administration 
of  Governor  Lewis  Morris  and  held  the  position  until  his 
death  in  1756.  In  recommending  the  appointment,  Morris 
says  of  him  : — "John  Rodman  a  Quaker,  a  man  of  good  tem- 
per, of  a  good  estate  in  Jersie  and  Pennsilvania  and  generally 
esteemed  both  by  Quakers  and  others."  His  father  John 
Rodman  of  Rhode  Island  and  his  uncle  Thomas  Rodman  of 
Long  Island  both  of  whom  were  physicians,  at  one  time  own- 
ed nearly  all  the  land  on  which  Moorestown  is  now  built.  Its 
first  name  "Rodmantown"  was  derived  from  them. 

A  Doctor  Brown  is  mentioned  in  Dr.  Franklin's  "Auto- 
biography'' as  living  in  Bordentown  in  1723  and  keeping  an 
inn.  Franklin  staid  with  him  all  night  and  says  : — "He  had 
been  I  imagine  an  ambulatory  quack  doctor  for  there  was  no 
town  in  England  nor  any  country  in  Europe  of  which  he  could 
not  give  a  very  particular  account. "  In  the  records  of  Ches- 
terfield Township  occur  the  following  items  : — "At  a  Town- 
ship Meeting  in  1738.,  4  shillings  to  Mr.  Brown  for  ye  cure  of 
a  poore  woman ;  £1.  1  s.  8  d.  to  Joseph  Brown  for  ye  trouble 
he  had  with  a  man  who  died  in  his  house."  It  is  supposed 
this  Joseph  Brown  is  the  same  as  Franklin's  innkeeper.     The 

31 


name  of  a  Doctor  Baillergeau  is  mentioned  with  Dr.  Brown's 
in  the  settlement  of  the  estate  of  Joseph  Scott  of  Chesterfield 
in  1726;  they  having  received  £2.  4  s.  5  d.  for  "medicines 
and  visits."  In  the  settlement  of  the  estate  of  Nathaniel  Pope 
of  Chesterfield  a  Dr.  Julian  is  mentioned.  Who  Julian  and 
Baillergeau  were  and  whether  they  were  Burlington  County 
men  I  have  been  unable  to  learn. 

In  the  Town  Meeting  Records  of  Chester  Township  ap- 
pears the  following: — "At  a  Town  Meeting  at  Thomas  Lip- 
pincott's,  15,  January  1747-8  by  Warrant  from  Jacob  Heu- 
lings  to  consider  on  some  measure  for  the  relief  of  Susanna 
Leelock,  ordered,  (Thomas  Lippincott  consenting)  yl  ye  Ov- 
erseers of  ye  Poor  bring  Her  to  His  house ;  get  Dr.  Overton 
to  restore  her  Health  and  Lameness, — if  Doctor  Overton  can- 
not attend,  ye  Overseers  to  apply  to  Doctor  Hall  and  provide 
another  place  for  Her  to  be  at.  Per  Joshua  Bispham,  Clerk." 
It  is  probable  that  both  Overton  and  Hall  were  residents  of 
our  county  but  we  know  nothing  more  of  them  than  their 
names. 

In  this  connection  I  might  say,  there  was  born  in  1764 
near  Moorestown,  John  H.  Stokes  who  practiced  medicine 
here  and  was  the  progenitor  of  a  family  of  physicians  of  the 
name  that  has  continued  to  this  day ;  honored  by  the  profes- 
sion, loved  in  the  community,  upright  Christian  gentlemen. 
May  the  tribe  increase. 

In  the  columns  of  the  newspapers  of  the  period  we  learn 
something  of  the  quacks  and  their  nostrums. 

32 


In  the  Pennsylvania  Journal  of  March  13,  1766,  we  find 
a  Doctor  Thomas  Ware  or  Wire  of  Burlington  advertising  for 
an  Irish  servant  girl  who  had  run  away  from  him.  In  the 
following  year  we  find  him  advertising  the  fact  that  he  had 
removed  from  Burlington  to  Philadelphia.  He  undertakes 
particularly  "to  cure  with  small  Expence  and  Pain  to  the 
Patient,  Cancers  and  Wens  without  cutting  them;  the  King's 
Evil  without  Sallivation,  and  as  he  has  great  Experience  and 
Success  in  all  the  above  Diseases,  he  hope  by  divine  Bless- 
ing to  be  able  to  give  Relief  to  any  distressed  Persons  afflict- 
ed with  them  that  shall  apply  to  him." 

We  do  not  feel  any  particular  interest  in  his  medical 
practice,  but  I  have  considerable  curiosity  which  I  fear  will 
never  be  gratified  to  know  whether  he  ever  recovered  his 
Irish  servant  girl.  Her  name  was  "Joanna  Dunagan,  aged 
about  20  years,  middle  stature,  brown  complection,  grey  eyes 
and  a  down  look,  short  black  curled  hair,  much  like  that  of 
a  mulatto,  pretty  much  pock-marked,  has  a  very  short  walk 
and  is  given  to  liquor;  had  on  and  took  with  her  an  old  cam- 
blet  and  two  callico  gcwns,  one  marked  with  spade  and  club, 
a  quilt  petticoat  one  side  callimancoe  the  other  linsey-wolsey, 
a  pair  of  shoes  that  has  been  cap'd  and  soaled,  white  wor- 
sted and  other  stockings,  a  white  straw  bonnet  with  a  green 
ribbon  round  the  edge  and  crown,  a  short  red  cloth  cardinal 
much  worn,  also  a  black  silk  short  cloak,  two  coarse  and  and 
one  fine  shifts,  and  a  black  silk  handkerchief.  She  has  sev- 
eral other  things   out  of  the  house.     It  is  suspected  she   is 

33 


gone  off  with  some  soldiers.  Whoever  takes  up  said  servant 
and  secures  her  so  she  may  be  had  again  shall  have  five 
pounds  reward  and  reasonable  charges." 

In  1770  a  Dr.  George  Weed  advertises  in  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Chronicle.  He  claims  to  have  practiced  physic  and 
surgery  for  13  years  in  West  Jersey  and  calls  the  attention  of 
the  public  to  his  Royal  Balsam  and  Pulius  Polychrestum.  A 
John  Griffith,  who  may  have  been  a  Burlington  man  attests 
the  merits  of  the  Pulius. 

In  1778,  Mary  Middleton  of  Crosswicks  advertises  in  the 
New  Jersey  Gazette  that  she  has  for  sale  "Dr.  Ryan's  Incom- 
parable Worm  Destroying  Sugar  Plumbs,  necessary  to  be 
kept  in  all  families".  She  says  "they  are  exceedingly  valued 
by  all  people  who  have  had  of  them  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  for  their  transcendent  excellency.  *  *  *  *  These 
plumbs  enrich  and  sweeten  the  whole  mass  of  blood,  carry 
off  all  gross,  corrupt  and  putrid  humors  and  create  a  fresh 
and  healthy  complection  in  such  as  as  are  affected  by  any 
putrid  matter." 

What  an  irreparable  loss  to  mankind  !  Dr.  Ryan  has 
departed  this  life  and  all  of  the  "sugar  plumbs"  have  been 
consumed. 

I  have  mentioned  the  fact  that  a  Robert  Talbot  of  Bur- 
lington kept  a  drug  store  there.  It  is  probable  that  in  col- 
onial days  there  were  few  if  any  drug  stores  or  apothecary 
shops  outside  of  the  largest  towns  but  from  the  advertise- 
ments in  the  newspapers  of  the  time  it  would  appear  that  the 

34 


general  stores  carried  a  line  of  the  more  common  drugs  and 
medicines.  Isaac  Collins,  the  New  Jersey  printer,  combined 
the  sale  of  drugs  and  medicines  with  his  publishing  and  book 
selling  business.  The  following  advertisement  appeared  in 
the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  of  March  21,  1771. 

"To  be  sold   on  reasonable  Terms   at  the  Printing 
Office  at  Burlington. 

The  following  Patent  Medic:nes 
Godfrey's  Cordial,  Say's   Balsam,  Turlington's  Bal- 
sam,   Bateman's   Pectoral    Drops,    Daffy's    Elixir, 
British  Oil,  Anderson's  Scot's  Pills,  Hooper's  Fe- 
male Pills,    Lockyer's   Pills,  Camphire,    Cream  of 
Tartar,    Lavender    Compound,    Salvolatile,    Court- 
Plaister,  Flour  of  Brimstone,  Quicksilver  Ointment, 
Glauber  Salts,  Epsom  Salts,  etc." 
The  business   was  doubtless  lucrative  as  we  find  him 
continuing  it  after  removing  to  Trenton.       The  mention  of 
Collins,  the  printer,  reminds  us  of  the  fact  that  in  1770  he 
published  the  Burlington  Almanac  for  1771,  the  first  almanac 
published  in  New  Jersey.     He  continued  to  publish  them 
during  his  stay  in  Burlington  and  after  removing  to  Trenton 
he  began  the  publication  of  the  New  Jersey  Almanac.     A 
very  prominent  feature  of  the  Collin's  Almanacs  and  in  fact 
of  all  the  Almanacs  published  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jer- 
sey during  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  is  the 
number  of  recipes  and  prescriptions  for  rheumatism,  bloody 
flux  and  other  ailments.       In  some  instances  they  occupy 
more  space  than  any  other  variety  of  reading  matter. 

35 


In  Poor  Richard's  Almanac  for  1761  published  in  Phila- 
delphia by  Franklin  &  Hall,  a  curious  account  is  given  of  a 
child  aged  seven  years,  afflicted  v/ith  convulsions,  and  some- 
what idiotic,  who  ate  nearly  a  pound  of  white  lead,  lamp  black 
and  linseed  oil.  It  acted  as  a  vermifuge  and  the  child  entire- 
ly recovered.  The  moral  of  this  affecting  little  story  is  that 
linseed  oil  is  an  excellent  vermifuge — to  say  nothing  of  the 
white  lead.  Some  of  these  Almanac  receipts  possess  merit; — 
some  are  at  least  harmless,  but  most  all  of  them  like  the 
"barty"  Hans  Breitmann  gave,  have  gone 
"Afayin  de  Ewigkeit." 
Of  the  system  of  practice  in  vogue  in  our  county  in  those 
days,  the  medical  education  of  the  physicians  and  the  medi- 
cines they  used,  but  little  has  come  down  to  us,  but  they  were 
doubtless  the  same  that  prevailed  in  England  before  and  dur- 
ing that  period.  A  few  remarks  concerning  them  may  not  be 
amiss  as  it  illustrates  our  subject.  The  student  then  received 
his  medical  education  as  an  apprentice  under  some  physician 
and  it  was  supplemented  usually  by  attending  some  lectures 
at  the  medical  schools  or  hospitals.  Smollett,  in  his  "Rod- 
erick Random"  gives  what  we  may  suppose  a  fairly  truthful 
picture  of  it.  Alchemy  was  intimately  associated  with  chem- 
istry and  not  until  the  discovery  of  Oxygen  by  Scheele  in  Swe- 
den and  Priestly  in  England  in  1774  were  they  finally  divorced. 
We  can  consequently  imagine  that  Dr.  Wills,"Practicioner 
in  chymistry"  was  not  a  very  profound  scientist. 

36 


The  history  of  medicine  is  one  of  which  the  profession 
has  little  to  be  proud.  It  is  the  story  of  ignorance,superstition, 
credulity  and  blind  adherence  to  the  dogmas  of  the  ancients. 
To  question  them  was  rank  heresy.  Besides  this,  astrology 
was  closely  interwoven  with  it.  One  of  the  features  of  the 
olden  times  that  has  not  yet  entirely  disappeared  is  a  picture 
of  a  nude  man  surrounded  by  the  signs  of  the  zodiac  with  lines 
connecting  them  with  various  parts  of  his  anatomy.  The 
human  body  was  supposed  to  be  under  the  influence  of  the 
sun,  moon,  planets,  and  zodiacal  signs.  So  also  the  various 
plants  and  herbs.  Thus  the  dandelion  belonged  to  Jupiter; 
daisies  were  herbs  of  Venus;  the  peony  was  an  herb  of  the 
sun  and  under  the  Lion;  hops  belonged  to  Mars  and  so  on.  Only 
since  medicine  has  been  emancipated  from  this  superstition 
has  it  been  entitled  to  the  name  of  science.  Even  yet  how- 
ever a  vestige  of  Astrology  remains.  The  letter  R  with  a 
line  across  the  tail  that  heads  the  doctor's  prescription  is  a 
variant  form  of  the  old  astrological  sign  for  Jupiter. 

The  entire  kingdom  of  nature  was  ransacked  for  remedial 
agents,  many  of  which  are  entirely  inert  and  some  could  only 
have  been  selected  for  there  superlative  nastiness.  Sir  Theo- 
dore Mayerne  who  died  in  1655,  was  an  eminent  physician. 
For  hypochondriacal  affections  he  recommended  as  an  ungu- 
ent, his  "Balsam  of  Bats"  composed  of  snakes,  bats,  sucking 
whelps,  earth  worms,  hog's  grease  and  the  thigh  bone  of  an 
ox.  "Raspings  of  a  human  scull  unburied"  was  his  favorite 
remedy  for  gout,      Dr.  Bulleyn    prescribed  a  "smal  yong 

37 


mouse  rosted"  as  a  remedy  for  a  nervous  malady,  perhaps 
on  homoeopathic  principles,  as  a  live  mouse  has  been  known 
to  make  a  whole  room  full  of  women  nervous.  In  1685,  was 
published  in  London  "The  London  Practice  of  Physic",  em- 
boding  the  system  of  practice  of  Dr.  Thomas  Willis  a  Profes- 
sor in  the  University  of  Oxford  and  Physician  in  Ordinary  to 
Charles  the  Second.  Anthony  Wood  says  he  was  the  most 
famous  physician  of  his  time.  Among  the  remedies  he  re- 
commends for  various  diseases  are  powder  of  toads,  frogs, 
crows,  cuckoos  and  viper's  flesh : — oyl  of  Frogs  and  Earth 
worms ;  —livers  of  the  pup,  frog  and  wolf . — water  of  snails  ; 
— snails  boiled  in  milk  ; — "gelly"  from  the  skins  of  vipers  ; — 
tinctures  of  bees,  millipedes  and  grass-hoppers  and  many 
other  things  I  dare  not  mention.  But  all  these  are  nectar  and 
ambrosia  compared  to  the  remedies  mentioned  on  page  40, 
Bohn's  edition  of  the  "Table  Talk  of  Martin  Luther,"  the  cor- 
pulent gentlemen  who  it  will  be  remembered  threw  his  ink- 
stand at  the  devil  and  missed  him.  The  following  is  one  of 
Dr.  Willis'  prescriptions  for  asthma : — 

'  'Take  roots  of  Elecampane,  and  of  Floren- 
tine Orris  of  each  half  an  Ounce,  Leaves  of 
Hyssop,  and  of  Horehound  dry'd,  of  each 
six  Drams,  Carthamus  Seeds  one  Ounce, 
Anniseeds  and  Dillseeds,  of  each  two 
Drams,  Licorice  slic'd  and  Raisins  cleans'd 
of  each  three  Drams ;  let  them  be  prepar- 
ed and  sewed  up  in  the  Belly  of  an  old 

38 


Cock   which   must  be   boiled    in    fifteen 
pounds  of  fountain  water  till  the  flesh  falls 
from  the  Bones  ;    strain  it  and  let  it  settle. 
The  Dose  of  the  Clear  Liquor  is  six  Oun- 
ces with  an  Ounce  of  Oxymel  simple  ;    Let 
it  be  taken  for  many  days  together,    some- 
times for  a  whole  Month." 
The  old  rooster  I  fancy  would  be  somewhat  stale  hy  the 
end  of  the  month.     From  all  this  we  may  judge  what  must 
have  been  the  practice  of  the  early  physicians  in  our  county. 
Some  vipers  may  have  been  brought  over  in  the  Kent,  or  per- 
haps they  substituted  black  snakes. 

Let  us  turn  and  notice  two  of  the  famous  English  empir- 
ics of  the  time.  I  have  a  reason  for  mentioning  both.  Nich- 
olas Culpeper  born  1616,  died  1654,  was  the  son  of  a  clergy- 
man in  Surrey.  He  went  to  Cambridge,  and  acquired  a  good 
knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin.  He  studied  the  old  medical 
works,  apprenticed  himself  to  an  apothecary  and  finally  set 
up  near  London  as  as  astrologer  and  physician.  In  1649,  he 
published  an  English  translation  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  and  thus  won  their  un- 
dying hatred  for  giving  away  their  secrets.  He  had  served  in 
the  Parliamentary  army  however  and  being  a  good  fighter 
struck  back  at  them  by  publishing  in  1653,  "The  English 
Physician  Enlarged,  with  369  Medicines  made  from  English 
Herbs,"  in  which  he  retaliates  with  caustic  wit.  This  work 
was  reprinted  many  times  and  had  an  enormous  sale.    In  fact 

39 


outside  of  the  standard  religious  publications  of  the  time  few 
books  had  a  greater  circulation.  Justice  has  never  been  done 
to  Culpepper.  I  am  satisfied  that  the  book  apart  from  its  as- 
trological nonsense,  had  much  to  do  in  reforming  medical 
practice.  No  doubt  many  copies  found  their  way  to  this 
country ; — the  copy  I  hold  in  my  hand  among  the  number — 
and  furnished  a  text  book  for  the  empiric  and  charlatan  to 
begin  business  with.  The  following  is  his  description  of  the 
Woodbine  or  HoneySuckle: — 

"It  is  a  Plant  so  common  that  every  one  that  hath 
Eyes  knows  it  and  he  that  hath  none,  cannot  read  a 
Description  if  I  should  write  it. 
Doctor  Tradition,  that  grand  Introducor  of  Errors, 
that  Hater  of  Truth,  that  Lover  of  Folly  and  that 
Mortal  Foe  to  Dr.  Reason,  hath  taught  the  common 
People  to  use  the  Leaves  or  Flowers  of  this  plant  in 
Mouth  waters,  and  by  long  Continuance  of  Time, 
hath  so  grounded  it  in  the  Brains  of  the  Vulgar,  that 
you  cannot  beat  it  out  with  a  Beetle.  All  Mouth 
waters  ought  to  be  cooling  and  drying,  but  Honey- 
Suckles  are  cleansing,  consuming  and  digesting 
and  therefor  no  way  fit  for  Inflammations  thus  Dr. 
Reason,  Again,  if  you  please  we  will  leave  Dr. 
Reason  and  come  to  Dr.  Experience,  a  learned  Gent- 
leman and  his  Brother.  Take  a  Leaf  and  chew  it  in 
your  Mouth  and  you  will  quickly  find  it  likelier  to 
cause  a  sore  Mouth  and  Throat  than  to  cure  it.     Well 

40 


then,  if  it  be  not  for  this,  what  is  it  good  for?  'Tis 
good  for  something,f or  God  and  Nature  made  Nothing 
in  vain;  it  is  an  Herb  of  Mercury  and  approp- 
riated to  the  Lungs;  and  the  Celestial  Crab 
claims  Dominion  over  it;  neither  is  it  a  Foe  to 
the  Lion;  if  the  Lungs,  be  afflicted  by  Jupiter  this  is 
your  Cure:  It  is  fitting  a  Conserve  made  of  the 
Flowers  of  it  were  kept  in  every  Gentlewoman's 
house.  I  know  no  better  cure  for  an  Asthma  than 
this,  besides  it  take  away  the  Evil  of  the  Spleen, 
helps  Cramp,  Convulsions  and  Palsies,  and  whatever 
Griefs  come  from  Cold  or  Stopping;  if  you  please  to 
make  use  of  it  in  an  Ointment  it  will  clear  your  Skin 
of  Morphew,  Freckles  land  Sunburnings, or  whatever 
else  discolors  it  and  then  the  Maids  will  love  it. 
I  have  done  when  I  have  told  you  what  Authors 
says,  and  cavilled  a  little  with  them;  they  say, 
The  Flowers  are  of  more  Effect  than  the  leaves  and 
thats  true  but  they  say  the  Seeds  are  least  effectual 
of  all.  But  Dr.  Reason  told  me,  That  there  was  a 
vital  Spirit  in  every  Seed  to  beget  its  like;  and  Dr. 
Experience  told  me,  That  there  was  a  greater  heat 
in  the  Seed  than  there  was  in  any  other  part  of  the 
Plant:  and  that  withal.  That  Heat  was  the  Mother  of 
Action;  and  then  judge  if  old  Dr.  Tradition  (who 
may  well  be  honored  for  his  Age,  but  not  for  his 
Goodness)  hath  not  so   poison'd   the  World   with 

41 


Errors  before  I  was    born  that  it  was  never  well   in  its   Wits 
since,  and  there  is  great  Fear  it  will  die  mad." 

The  other  empiric,  William  Salmon,  born  1644,  died 
1713,  was  a  man  of  considerable  learning.  He  established 
himself  near  the  gate  of  St.  Batholomew's  Hospital  in  London 
to  catch  such  patients  as  that  institution  would  not  or  could 
not  receive.  Here  he  practiced  medicine;  sold  nostrums 
and  cast  horoscopes.  He  published  several  works  on  various 
subjects.  In  1710-1,  he  published  his  Botanalogia  or  the 
English  Herbal  which  he  dedicated  to  Queen  Anne. 
Wickes  says  of  this    book: — 

"We  have  seen  a  copy  of  Salmon's  Herbal  which 
was  the  text  book  of  a  New  Jersey  physician  of 
large  practice,  and  in  his  day  of  much  reputation. 
Being  a  man  of  property  he  paid  the  expenses  of  a 
messenger  to  England  to  obtain  the  volume.  It  is 
a  folio  of  1300  pages;  cost  £50.  It  was  the  text 
book  of  our  New  Jersey  doctor  between  1758  and 
1777." 

Throughout  all  the  colonies  in  the  early  days  the  practice 
of  midwifery  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  midwives  and  this 
condition  of  things  continued  to  nearly  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Even  as  late  as  1800,  the  midwife  was 
still  in  many  instances  called  upon  in  preference  to  the  male 
physician.  She  was  usually  a  middle  aged  woman  or  even 
older,  who  had  herself  been  a  mother.  Oftentimes,  perhaps 
more  often  than  not  she  was  of  good  family  and  took  up  the 

42 


profession  for  the  love  of  it.  Her  services  were  of  course 
liable  to  be  called  for  at  any  time  and  one  important  part  of 
her  outfit  was  a  good  riding  horse  and  she  knew  how  to  ride 
for  it  was  before  the  days  of  good  roads  and  comfortable 
vehicles. 

A  little  girl  it  is  said  once  gave  this  definition  of  a  lie  : — 
■  'a  heinous  offense  in  the  sight  of  God  but  a  very  present  help 
in  time  of  trouble." — When  that  little  package  of  mortal 
mystery,  that  bundle  of  infantile  humanity,  the  new  born 
babe,  red  in  the  face,  awkward,  helpless,  without  form  or 
void,  with  no  language  but  a  cry, — is  shown  to  the  small  fry 
of  the  family,  the  moral  uses  of  a  lie  have  been  recognized 
from  time  immemorial,  to  answer  embarrassing  questions.  I 
am  sure  that  even  the  grave  and  sober  members  of  the  Histor- 
ical Society  of  Burlington  County  have  lied  outrageously  on 
occasions  like  this.  I  will  go  still  farther.  Should  the  fate 
of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  come  upon  this  assembly  to-night 
for  lapses  in  this  particular, — well,  Mr.  Rambo  would  have 
the  busiest  time  in  his  history  during  the  next  few  days.  We 
never  hear  of  the  midwife  now  at  all,  the  blame  is  laid  entirely  on 
the  stork  ;  and  as  the  stork  is  found  in  Germany  I  suspect 
this  particular  lie  should  be  labelled,  Made  in  Germany. 

The  families  of  the  settlers  who  were  married  before  they 
came  hither  were  usually  small.  Daniel  Wills  brought  over 
eight  children  and  his  case  is  somewhat  exceptional.  The 
small  family  was  perhaps  due  to  the  fact  that  the  expense  of 
coming  hither  deterred  those  who  had  a  large  number  of  child- 

43 


ren.  But  there  seems  to  be  something  in  colonization  in  a 
new  land  that  is  conducive  to  fecundity  and  our  colony  rapid- 
ly increased  in  population  by  reason  of  the  large  birth  rate  as 
much  as  from  accessions  from  without.  The  woods  swarmed 
with  babies.  The  storks  were  exceedingly  busy  and  many  a 
time  they  raced  with  the  midwife  to  see  who  should  be  on 
hand  first.  Large  families  were  usual.  Families  of  twelve, 
thirteen,  fourteen  or  even  more,  children  were  very  common. 
Three  times  the  stork  visited  the  home  of  John  and  Hannah 
(Horner)  Matlack  and  when  John  married  the  second  time, 
Mary  Lee,  they  came  nineteen  times  making  twenty-two  trips 
in  all.  The  names  of  thirteen  of  these  children  have  come 
down  to  us  but  the  other  six  escaped  to  the  woods  and  we 
have  lost  them.  Joseph  and  Dorothy  Haines  were  visited  by 
the  storks  seven  times  and  when  Joseph  married  again  they 
brought  thirteen  more  little  bundles.  Fourteen  trips  were  made 
to  the  home  of  Thomas  Stokes  who  married  Deliverance 
Horner  and  Rachel  Wright.  Fifteen  times  they  came  to  Jar- 
vis  and  Elizabeth  Rogers  Stokes.  Seventeen  times  they  came 
to  Robert  and  Ruth  (Haines)  Miller,  Thirteen  times  they  came 
to  Thomas  and  Sarah  (Inskeep)  Stokes  and  three  times  they 
were  overloaded  for  they  carried  two  little  bundles  instead  of 
one,  making  sixteen  in  all.  Friend  Thomas  was  cast  down 
but  not  dismayed.  He  accepted  the  situation  gracefully  and 
did  not  demand  a  recount.  All  that  was  needed  was  to  buy 
a  new  cow  occasionally  and  plant  another  row  of  potatoes  a 
little  closer  to  the  fence.     Sixteen  times  the  storks  came  to 

44 


John  Warrington  and  his  two  wives,  Mary  and  Susanna. 
Thirteen  visits  were  paid  to  Samuel  and  Elizabeth  (Burr) 
Woolman,  and  one  of  those  little  bundles  fretted  and  squalled 
like  other  infants,  but  he  was  moulded  somewhat  on  the  mo- 
del of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  and  his  saintly  life,  character  and 
utterances  induced  Charles  Lamb  to  say  "Get  the  Writings  of 
John  Woolman  by  heart."  The  Lippincott  family — well  they 
multiplied  like  sparrows.  On  one  occasion  three  storks  came 
at  one  time  with  little  packages,  but  this  is  more  modern  his- 
tory. As  a  matter  of  course  all  these  families  and  many 
others  kept  their  own  private  storks,  occasionally  lending 
them  when  urgent  necessity  demanded. 

The  first  visit  the  stork  paid  in  Burlington  County  of 
which  we  have  any  definite  knowledge  occurred  soon  after  the 
arrival  of  the  Kent's  passengers  at  Burlington.  We  find  the 
following  entry  in  the  early  records  of  Burlington  Monthly 
Meeting:- 

"  Elizabeth  Powel  Daughter  of  Robert  &  Prudence 

Powell  was 

Borne  in  Burlington  the  7th  Seauenth  month,  1677 

Latte  of  London,  Chandlar.     Witnesses  then  p'sent. 

Ellen    Harding,      Mary  Cripps,      Ann    Peachee." 

Robert  Powell  located  in  Wellingboro  Township  and  his 
sons  in  Northampton,  From  them  a  numerous  progeny  has 
sprung.  Little  Elizabeth  grew  up  to  womanhood  and  found 
favor  in  the  sight  of  James  Newbold,  who  married  her.     After 

45 


his  death  she  married  Jacob  Decou.  Eight  little  Decous 
comprised  the  next  generation.  It  would  seem  that  the  above 
mentioned  Ellen  Harding,  Mary  Cripps  and  Ann  Peachee 
were  present  at  the  storks  visit.  Why  it  seemed  necessary  to 
record  this  fact  is  something  I  am  unable  to  understand. 

Many  years  ago,  an  old  uncle  of  mine,  a  staid  member  of 
Aich  Street  Meeting,  who  had  a  fondness  for  genealogical  re- 
search, learned  that  there  was  a  family  bearing  our  name  liv- 
ing in  South  Philadelphia.  So  one  fine  day  he  put  on  his 
broad  brim  and  set  out  to  make  their  acquaintance  and 
find  out  where  the  relationship  came  in.  On  reaching  the 
place  he  found  to  his  consternation  that  they  were  negroes  as 
black  as  a  kitchen  range.  Abolitionist  as  he  was,  this  was  too 
much  for  him  and  he  returned  without  claiming  them  as  re- 
latives. Some  years  ago  I  found  a  colored  family  bearing  the 
the  name  of  Matlack  in  Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania,  and  I 
am  told  that  there  is  or  was  a  colored  family  named  Roberts 
in  this  community,  and  no  doubt  we  could  find  lots  of  our 
good  old  Burlington  County  names  borne  by  colored  people. 
This  is  a  usually  accounted  for  on  the  theory,  that  some- 
time in  the  past  the  ancestors  of  these  colored  families  were 
slaves  and  adopted  the  family  name  of  their  masters.  Now 
this  theory  has  never  been  entirely  satisfactory  to  me  and  I  am 
half  inclined  to  hold  these  storks  responsible  for  this.  From 
what  I  have  already  said  it  will  be  seen  that  the  storks  were 
overworked.  Why  may  not  some  of  them,  grown  tired,  care- 
less and  perhaps  a  little  spiteful,  like  Little  Buttercup  in  Pin- 
afore, have 

46 


"mixed  those  babies  up 
And  not  a  creature  knew  it?" 
This  is  only  a  suggestion  however.     I  do  not  ask  you  to 

accept  it. 

To-day  the  storks  have  all  joined  the  labor  union  and 
never  work  overtime. 

So  much  for  the  babies.  To  tell  about  the  young  and 
middle  aged  men  and  women  in  those  days  is  to  tell  the  whole 
history  of  the  Colony  and  I  am  not  equal  to  that,  so  we  will 
pass  along  to  the  old  men. 

The  following  appears  in  the  records  of  Chester  Town- 
ship:— 

'  'At  a  Town  Meeting  at  Henry  Warrington's  9,  March, 
1756. 

Agreed  that  ye  Eldest  settler  in  ye  sd  Township  who 

have  never  served  the  Constable's  Office  shall  be 

chosen  for  Constable — per  John  Cox,  Clerk." 

They  knew  the  value  of  money  quite  as  well  then  as  they 

do  now  and  evidently  there  was  little  or  none  of  it  in  the  office 

or  else  some  patriot  would  have  sought  it  and  there  would  have 

been  no  occasion  to  saddle  it  on  the  old  men.     Even  in  those 

Arcadian  Days  there  were  always  some  offenders  against  law 

and  others  who  drank  too  much  liquor  and  made  nuisances  of 

themselves,  some  who  appropriated  what  did  not  belong  to 

them  and  some  who  had  a  constitutional  disinclination  to  pay 

their  debts.     Hence  there  were  times  when  writs  had  to  be 


47 


served  and  arrests  made.  Neverthless  the  majesty  of  the  law 
may  have  been  so  fully  recognized  and  the  duties  of  the  office  so 
few  and  trifling,  that  any  old  man  or  any  old  woman  for  that 
matter,  could  perform  them,  and  so  old  Billy,  or  Tommy  or 
Sammy  as  the  case  might  be  who  was  too  old  and  feeble  to  do 
a  good  hard  day's  work  could  easily  manage  to  toddle  around 
and  keep  the  peace.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  even  in  our  day, 
in  rural  section,  the  constables  are  apt  to  be  old  men.  A 
Samuel  Davis  was  constable  in  Chester  Township  in  1756  and 
Thomas  Cowperthwaite  in  1757.  They  had  never  filled  the 
office  before. 

I  am  glad  that  the  rule  of  appointing  the  oldest  men,  con- 
stables, who  have  never  held  the  office  before  is  no  longer  in 
force.  Mine  honored  friend  William  R.  Lippincott,  the 
worthy  vice-president  of  our  Society  and  myself  are  not  old 
men  yet  but  we  are  walking  down  the  road  where  the  shad- 
ows are  growing  longer  and  cooler  and  we  do  not  want  to 
look  forward  to  such  a  fate  as  in  our  old  age  to  be  chosen 
constables  and  perhaps  have  to  chase  some  colored  brother 
through  the  wilds  of  Mt.  Laurel  because  he  loved  chicken 
not  wisely  but  too  well. 

One  more  "Kindred  topic"  and  I  am  done.  We  have 
touched  on  the  beginning  of  life  and  on  old  age  and  only  one 
thing  remains; — to  bury  our  settler.  In  Salem  County  it  was 
rather  an  expensive  performance  to  die.  The  funeral  charges 
were  from  five  to  ten  pounds,  sometimes  more  than  a  tenth  of 
the  amount  of  the  inventory  of  the  personal  estate  of  the  de- 

48 


ceased.  In  one  instance,  George  Ross,  minister  at  New  Castle 
was  paid  £3.  or  more  than  one  seventh  of  the  amount  of  the 
inventory  "for  trouble  in  crossing  the  river  and  preaching  the 
funeral  sermon."  From  what  little  has  come  down  to  us  it 
would  seem  to  have  been  somewhat  more  economical  to  die 
and  be  buried  in  our  County.  In  the  records  of  Burlington 
Monthly  Meeting  is  the  following: - 

"At  our  Monthly  Meeting  held  at  Thomas  Gardiner's 
(1685) 

"Peter  Woolcot  was  willing  to  make  graves  and  look 
to  ye  Fences  of  ye  burying-ground  and  Friends  are 
willing  to  see  him  paid  an  old  English  shilling  for 
such  men's  or  women's  graves  y*  may  not  be  paid 
for  by  ye  persons  y*  employ  him." 
It  is  no  wonder  that  we  do  not  find  Peter's  name  as  a 
member  of  the  Colonial  Assembly.     At  the  rate  of  one  shill- 
ing per  grave  he  could  never  earn  enough  money  to  make  him 
eligible  for  anything  else  than  the  office  of  sexton. 

In  the  accounts  of  William  Cook,  administrator  of  the 
Estate  of  William  Duckworth  of  New  Hanover  Township  who 
died  in  1737,  we  find  he  paid  Paul  Walkings,  sexton  of  the 
church  at  Burlington  for  digging  two  graves,  14  s.  and  William 
Ashton  for  two  coffins  £1.  13s.  But  they  knew  how  to  charge 
and  eat  up  an  estate  when  the  opportunity  offered  quite  as  well 
then  as  we  do  now.  The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Horwood,  mission- 
ary of  St.  Mary's  Church,  Burlington,  died  in  1730.  He  ap- 
pears to  have  had  no  heirs  in  this  country,  his  widow  was  prob- 

49 


ably  living  in  England.     His  estate  was  appraised  at  £71. 
12s.  Id.    It  looks  as  if  the  good  people  of  St.  Mary's  Church 
knew  a  good  thing   when  the  saw  it  and  thought  the  money 
might  as  well  stay  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  for  £35.  5s. 
Id.  or  one  half  of  the  appraised  estate  was  paid  for  funeral 
expenses  and  I  am  afraid  that  a  good  many  that  attended  the 
missionary's  funeral  saw  double  before  the  day  was   over. 
Mention  is  made  in  Administrator's  accounts  of  that  period  of 
monies  used  to  defray  the  expense  of  rum,  sugar,  spices,  cider 
and  cakes  consumed  at  funerals,  and  in  one  instance  a  little  less 
than  one  fourth  of  the  personal  estate  was  used  for  this  pur- 
pose.    The  result  may  be  better  imagined,  than   described. 
In  the  Advices  of  the  Yearly  Meeting  in  1719  I  note 
the  following; —     "Whereas,  at  some  burials  where 
people  may  come  far,  there  may  be  occasion  for  re- 
freshment yet  let  that  be  done  in  such  moderation,and 
the  behavior  of  all  Friends  be  with  such  gravity  and 
sobriety  as  become  the  occasion;  and  if  any  appear 
otherwise,  let  them  be  reproved  and  dealt  with  as  is 
advised  in  cases  of  misbehavior  or   indecencies  at 
marriages.     And  it  may  be  further  noted,  that  any 
excess  in  this  case,  and  the  making  so  solemn  a  time 
as  this  ought  to  be,  and  really  is,  in  its  own  nature, 
to  appear  as  a  festival,  must  be   burdensome  and 
grievous  to  the  sober  Christian  mind,  which  will  of 
course,  be  under  afar  different  exercise  at  such  times. 
Friends  are  desired,  therefore,  to  have  great  care 

50 


therein  and  use  all  endeavors  everywhere  more  and 
more  to  break  from  and  avoid  that  offensive  and  un- 
suitable custom  of  large  provisions  of  strong  drink, 
cakes,  etc.  and  the  formal  and  repeated  servings  and 
offers  thereof.  This  indecent  and  indiscreet  custom 
and  practice  has  run  to  such  excess  that  invitations 
being  made  to  greater  numbers  than  their  own  or 
neighbor's  houses  can  contain,  the  very  streets  and 
open  places  are  made  use  of  for  the  handing  about 
burnt  wine  and  other  strong  liquors.  And  besides  these 
indecencies  above  mentioned,  the  custom  of  waiting 
for  the  last  that  will  please  to  come  (though  ever  so 
unseasonable)  and  the  formality  of  repeated  servings 
to  each,  breaks  in  upon  another  decent  order  among 
Friends  of  keeping  to  and  observing  the  time 
appointed." 

Many  of  the  early  Friends  in  their  polemic  writings 
came  close  to  the  boarder  line  of  Billingsgate  in  the  language 
they  used  and  some  crossed  over  the  border;  but  in  all  their 
official  utterances,  Friends  as  a  rule  have  never  made  use  of 
superlatives.  They  have  always  used  the  utmost  moderation 
and  decorum  in  their  deliverances.  In  speaking  of  offences 
against  the  discipline,  general  and  not  specif ic  terms  seem  to 
be  used  whenever  possible  and  details  and  particulars  avoided, 
so  much  so  is  this  the  case  that  an  expression  like  "unbecom- 
ing behavior"  may  be  used  to  describe  offences  deserving 
harsher  names.     In  the  light  of  these  facts,  we  may  well  ima- 

51 


gine  from  the  vigorous  and  unambigous  language  used  in  the 
above  recited  quotation  from  the  Advices  of  1719  that  the  true 
condition  of  things  was  very  much  worse  than  appears  on  the 
surface. 

If  rum  and  spirits  flowed  freely  at  funerals  in  those  good 
old  times  it  is  not  unlikely,  that  occasionly  at  least,  the  per- 
formance was  varied  with  scenes  resembling  some  of  those 
that  Father  Prout  tells  us  occurred  on 

"The  night  before  Larry  was  stretched." 

And  now  that  the  funeral  is  over,  I  close.  I  think  that 
you  will  now  agree  with  me  that  the  tail  has  indeed  wagged 
the  dog. 


52 


J^  ERRATA    jk 

The   following    errors    occur :- 

Page    8,  23  line  from  top.  for  country  read  county. 

9>  13  cargos  read  cargoes. 

*3>     9  Authority  read  authority. 

'3)  26  rozi,  rea(j  ynm, 

I5'     3  indiginous  read  indigenous. 

l5>   *6  is  read  /«. 

2I>   '4  after  valued  insert  af. 

21 »   '5  for  course  read  coarse. 

26>     5  /'eace  read  P/ace. 

2^'   l6  <?<#frb«  read  translation 

29>   *3  colonist  read  colonists. 

Montgomery  read  Montgomerie. 


30,  26 


31'     5  Crosby  read  Cbs&j/. 


38,  5 
40,  3 
42,     5 

51,  18 

52,  5 


em  boding  read  embodying. 
Culpepper  read  Culpeper. 
Batholomew  read  Bartholomew. 
Billingsgate  read  billingsgate, 
occasionly  read  occasionally . 


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